Alarm over new Revenue plan to outsource security

Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is poised to outsource security and internal mail contracts at 11 of its most sensitive offices, raising fears of more serious security breaches at the beleaguered agency.

Most security at its 700 offices is already outsourced, but HMRC has retained the security of these 11 in house. HMRC insiders believe that its offshore-based landlord Mapeley is likely to win the security contract.

The HMRC has shelved a separate announcement, scheduled for this week, in which it was expected to reveal details of its plan to axe a further 11,000 staff by 2011. Since 2004, 14,000 HMRC workers have left in the wake of the merger between Revenue and Customs & Excise, which is now widely seen as a disaster. Sources indicate that the Revenue is about to axe 5,000 compliance officers from an existing force of 16,000, which unions believe will hinder the chances of cracking down on tax evasion.

The announcement's delay is thought to be related to last week's revelation that two discs containing bank details and other personal information of nearly half the population had gone missing.

HMRC said: 'Security across the majority of HMRC sites is already provided by a third party. Remaining sites not covered by this are being reviewed.'